Raheem Brock says he was fined for hit on Ben Roethlisberger

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Raheem Brock used his Twitter account to do two things on Wednesday:

1. Announce that he’s being fined by the NFL for his late hit on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger during Sunday’s game.

2. Dispute that he should be fined by the NFL for his late hit on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger during Sunday’s game.

Here’s what Brock tweeted about the fine:

“Fined by the NFL today for being “TRIPPED” by an o’lineman and fallin into the QB’s legs! Smh if I only had super powers to stop mid air”

For those not in the know, “smh” is shorthand for “shaking my head.”

And I think Brock has a point here. The hit in question came in the second quarter, when Brock appeared to dive late into Roethlisberger’s legs. Brock was flagged for roughing the passer, and Roethlisberger was shaken up and had to leave the game for a short time. He returned later and finished the game.

Upon replay inspection, though, it appeared as if Brock was tripped — as he claimed on Twitter — by Steelers right tackle Marcus Gilbert, which caused Brock to fall forward into Roethlisberger’s legs. So actually, a case could be made that Gilbert should have been flagged for tripping.

But that’s not the way the league office saw it, apparently. We’ve included a video of the play below (fast forward to about the 1:14 mark), but it’s difficult to see Gilbert’s role based on that angle. SB Nation has a pretty nice screen shot of the play, though, which shows with some clarity that Gilbert leg-whipped Brock on his way to the backfield.